Black Panther Party Chapter Analysis

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The Seattle branch of the Black Panther Party was one of the first chapters to be established outside of the original headquarters of California. Aaron Dixon, the founder of this branch, recounts his time as a panther in the book My People Are Rising. In this book, Dixon describes his experiences as having been a constant emotional roller coaster. One day everything would go according to plan, and the next the party would be under heavy attack. the Seattle Black Panther Party branch was one of the strongest, most well organized chapters within the party, and at one point in its existence, it was also one of the most dangerous chapters of the party, supporting Hoover’s statement of the Black Panthers being “the number one internal threat to the security of the United States.” However, the Seattle chapter was also the leader in the creation of many community programs that benefitted the people, contradicting the internal threat accusations. The cause of the Party and the ideals and values that it stood for could have also influenced the reason why the government and the FBI …show more content…

The chapter began using violence in order to increase their dominance when needed. However, Dixon says that opposite to what many believe or associate with the BPP, “The party did not openly advocate attacks on police. We were supposed to be organizing the masses, helping them to prepare for self-defense and eventually guerilla warfare, if it came to that”(125). In 1968, the Seattle BPP chapter really took off. “That summer, Time and Newsweek published charts of the ten cities with the highest rates of firebombing and snipping. We were proud that Seattle had ranked number one in firebombing and number two in sniping…The Panthers had put Seattle on the

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